Purchase the Pump, Promote the Dump — Does Momentum Investing Work in Bitcoin?

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Purchase the Pump, Promote the Dump — Does Momentum Investing Work in Bitcoin?

Because the begin of the yr, Bitcoin (BTC) value has been as excessive as $9,200 — a 2-month excessive — whereas going as little as $6,900 on Jan.


Because the begin of the yr, Bitcoin (BTC) value has been as excessive as $9,200 — a 2-month excessive — whereas going as little as $6,900 on Jan. 3. Bitcoin’s volatility is without doubt one of the most often mentioned points that come up when buyers consider Bitcoin as an asset class. Nevertheless, its risky conduct is what offers a chance for buyers to benefit from the value actions and make a revenue. 

Following predictions as optimistic because the $100,000 forecast primarily based on the stock-to-flow mannequin, buyers might foresee one other interval of excessive value hypothesis, opening the door for a wider set of funding methods. 

On the opposite facet, if buyers find yourself experiencing a bearish situation like nearly all of 2018 and a portion of 2019, bolder methods primarily based on broad value actions might function an excellent various for market makers. 

Cryptocurrency market weekly overview. Supply: Coin360

Methods primarily based on massive value actions have been exploited for many years in conventional markets, particularly in shares. A kind of methods is momentum investing. An investor evaluates the every day returns for a pattern of shares and identifies which one was the most important loser and winner within the value for that day. 

In conventional markets, it was discovered to be profitable to purchase the winner inventory that day and maintain it for a sure interval (as much as investor discretion) and promote (quick) the loser inventory. Often, buyers develop this technique primarily based on portfolios of finest and worst-performing shares as an alternative of solely selecting the most effective and worst performer from the chosen pattern. 

Nevertheless, it’s not unusual for the person momentum technique to even be utilized amongst buyers regardless of elevating questions on funding diversification. However, if diversification is discovered to be ineffective within the crypto house, as reported by Cointelegraph, an investor may count on higher outcomes from a person momentum technique as an alternative of specializing in portfolios. 

How does Momentum investing work within the crypto atmosphere?

Firstly, we establish the top-20 cryptocurrencies available in the market in the present day and get the every day returns for every forex throughout 2019. All through a portion of final yr, we’ve got seen a bearish situation available in the market. Nevertheless, Bitcoin picked up and ended the yr with a cumulative return of 65%. 

By analyzing this technique for a interval with such traits, we are able to current a bolder technique for buyers to benefit from larger swings in smaller currencies for the reason that greatest cash confirmed modest good points. 

Secondly, we establish which was the forex that had the best (winners) and the bottom (losers) return from the top-20 currencies for every day in 2019. 

After figuring out the every day winners and losers, we assume that an investor buys its closing value that day and sells it the next day, additionally on the closing value. The closing value (newest information within the vary at UTC time given by Coin360) is assumed for simplicity functions as it’s open for buyers to determine the specified time to purchase and promote throughout these days. One other variation of the technique can encompass holding the coin for greater than in the future. 

By using this technique each day in 2019, we discover that an investor who buys the winners will get the most effective cumulative return of 140%. Whereas, an investor that buys the losers and sells them the next day retrieves a damaging return for this era (-105%). In conventional markets, the technique works in the identical approach with the investor shopping for the winners and sells the losers. 

Such risky conduct leads us to additionally have a look at a risk-adjusted efficiency measure since an investor have to be compensated by the publicity to larger threat funding. When exploring this technique — shopping for the winners — a Sharpe ratio (the measure of risk-adjusted return of a monetary portfolio) of 1.11 is achieved, excluding transaction prices, which is an appropriate efficiency for the technique. 

January 2019-December 2019 momentum methods (Shopping for Winners & Shopping for Losers) cumulative returns

As we’d count on, decrease market-capped cash seem extra usually as the most effective or worst performing forex available in the market: Chainlink (LINK), Tezos (XTZ) and Cosmos (ATOM). 

The identical currencies seem in each eventualities way more usually than with different currencies. As we’d count on, the upper market capped cash seem much less often as the best/worst performers (e.g. BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP).

Currencies with most appearances as finest and worst-performing forex throughout the pattern interval

Key components in a crypto momentum technique

Wanting ahead, an investor delving into these kind of methods ought to pay attention to sure components. The primary is that we regarded on the top-20 currencies available in the market in the present day and examined their returns for the final yr. 

Therefore, a number of the cash analyzed might not have been within the top-20 throughout some durations of 2019 as some might have simply been not too long ago launched or their volatility dislodged them from the pattern. On the identical time, currencies with…



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